Big Bazaar comes to Hubli

Staff Correspondent

HUBLI: Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd. opened a Big Bazaar outlet in Hubli on Saturday.
This is the ninth outlet in the State and 62nd outlet in Hubli on Saturday.

Rohit Malhotra, Business Head- South Zone of Pantaloon Retail (India) Ltd., told
presspersons that with 50,000 sq. ft. of shopping area, the Big Bazaar in Hubli would be
one of the largest stores of the company.

Located near Akshay Centre, Gokul Road, it was the first and biggest hypermarket store
in the city, he said.

To a question, he said the company hoped to do a business of Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 75 crore
in the first year of the Hubli outlet. Initially, up to 60 per cent discount would be
available on the products and goods, he said. The company planned to introduce “Future
Money”.

Organized retail comes to Hubli in a big way

Organized retail chains are targeting Hubli, the commercial hub of north Karnataka, in a
big way. With the Kishore Bayani group having launched its Big Bazar outlet in the city
recently, the stage is set for the Reliance group’s fruits and vegetable outlets.

Reliance Retail’s fruits and vegetable arm, Reliance Fresh, is slated to simultaneously
open a dozen outlets in Hubli-Dharwad to cater to the green groceries requirements of
this second largest urban centre in the state with huge potential for growth in the future.

Work on the interiors of its first store on station Road here is complete and is expected to
open sometime soon while bigger outlets are planned in Deshpande Nagar, Vidyanagar
and the residential hotspot on Gokul Road leading to the local airport.

Though Reliance Retail officials are tightlipped about their future plans for the twin
cities, the market is abuzz with reports that they will have nine outlets in Hubli and three
in Dharwad. Considering the vegetable and fruit growing potential of north Karnataka
region, these sound credible.

The city has recently witnessed a metamorphosis in the retail, food and entertainment
scenario, with arrival Pizza Hut and café Coffee day, Food Court and branded retail chain
store Girias before Big Bazaar, and the prospects of at least two malls and one multiplex
taking shape in the near future.

A leading film distributor and exhibitor of the region, Raiker Entertainments, may be the
first to come up with mall-cum-multiplex on P B Road in Vidyanagar, the educational
hub of Hubli. He has already got a cinema license from the authorities to go ahead with
the building plan.

Designed by Kembhavi Architecture Foundation, it will have two underground levels

plus five upper floors; with a total built-up area of 2.5 lakh sq.ft. It will be the first
centrally air-conditioned mall-cum-multiplex with full power back-up outside of
Bangalore and Mangalore in Karnataka.

Ramesh Raiker of Raiker Entertainments told The Times of India: “The mall multiplex
will have five theaters with capacities ranging from 150 to 350 seats. It will be first such
facility in north Karnataka to have escalators from the ground level atrium to the top two
floors housing the theatres.”

The underground levels will have parking space and hyper market for groceries and green
groceries. The parking area will have elevators up to the upper floors.

The mall will accommodate anchor stores, retail stores for branded products, and food
outlets of various sizes and formats to suit varying budgets.

Another mall-cum-multiplex is likely to come up on Gokul Road, which is fast emerging

as the future residential and commercial hub of the city. A Bangalore-based real estate
developer has plans to develop a shop ping mall near Court Circle in the heart of Hubli.